At its recent forecasting meeting, the WSTS has projected a global semiconductor market decline of -21.6% for 2009, reaching US$194.8 billion in sales. The WSTS had previously expected only a -2.8% decline, which was issued in November, 2008.

"The WSTS foresees a continued growth in demand for electronic products such as PCs, digital consumer appliances, mobile communications, and last but not least automotive electronics, enhanced by increase of semiconductor content per installed system." said Dr. Ulrich Schaefer, Worldwide Chairman of WSTS. He continued, "These trends are expected to unfold despite one of the strongest economical crisis in more than 80 years. Although we expect a significant reduction of sales this year, in the long run this trend is not influenced."

WSTS expects the bottom of the current cycle to be in the first half of 2009. Growth is expected to return in 2010. The market is now expected to reach US$209 billion in 2010, a 7.3% increase and top $US228 billion in 2011, a further rise of 8.9%. Asia Pacific region continues to be the fastest growing geographical area, according to the WSTS.